The World Archaeological Congress would like to express its strong opposition to thedevelopment proposed by the British company Minoan Group in the archaeologically rich,arid, windswept, uninhabited north-east corner of Crete, called Cavo Sidero. This letter isto draw your attention to the archaeological richness of this area, and to the threat posed tothis area by the proposed development.

The Minoan Group wish to build a resort for 7000 visitors, including golf courses, holiday'villages' and hotels. However, this area is of the greatest archaeological importance, as ithas been uninhabited for more than a thousand years. In consequence it contains remainsof the terraces, fields, check-dams and roads of Ancient Greek and Byzantine farmers on alandscape-wide scale, not disturbed by the activities of later cultivators. This is unique inCrete and may well be unique for the Mediterranean as a whole.

It is also of the greatest ecological importance for its special, drought-adapted vegetation.Crete is one of the world's biological hot-spots, and this corner includes important stands ofseveral of the world's rarest plants, such as the world-famous grove of Cretan palm at Vai.The peninsula is designated for conservation under the Natura 2000 scheme (GR4320006& GR4320009).

The recommendations of the archaeological impact assessment that has been carried out areinconsistent with the findings of leading archaeologists who have worked in the area foryears. This report singles out for protection a few, poorly designated localities and fails torecognise others, when virtually the whole landscape is, in effect, an archaeological site.

Proposed for protection are the site of Itanos itself, two scraps of landscape, and fiveisolated sites (one of which is the Minoan villa at Vai already heavily damaged bybulldozing). On the published map two of the sites are in the wrong places, which indicatesa poor standard of investigation. Furthermore, the survey of the French ArchaeologicalSchool of Athens has found more than 100 sites with standing architectural remains(http://webefa.efa.gr/prospection-itanos/). The well-preserved series of FinalNeolithic/Early Minoan I hilltop sites (a minimum of seven) are especially interesting,particularly given that many are with architecture. We are concerned that many of thesesites along with the unusually well-preserved ancient agricultural landscape will bedestroyed by the proposed development.

The World Archaeological Congress supports the hundreds of archaeologists working inGreece and the many thousands of others from all over the world who oppose thisdevelopment.

We urge Your Excellency to use your influence to prevent the proposed development fromgoing forward as planned, and to instigate appropriate study of this archaeologically richregion of your country.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Claire Smith, President

The World Archaeological Congress is a non-profit organization: WAC 501(c)(3) 52-2294579 074000010 697011369